American Go E-Journal » Go News

On Sunday, November 18, as part its ongoing Youth programs, the Seattle Go Center hosted its annual fall tournament for go players age 17 and younger. It was a just-for-fun event where the kids could choose to play their games on 19×19 or 13×13. Eight kids played three rounds in the 19×19 group, and thirteen played four rounds in the 13×13 group.

Players ranged from pre-school through 7th grade. For most of them, it was their first tournament ever. About 24% of the players came from one of the Go Center’s school outreach programs, another 38% from the Northwest Chinese School Weiqi Club headed by Sonny Cho, and the remaining 38% didn’t declare a program affiliation.

Halfway through the event, light snacks were devoured by the growing young go players and their support crews (a.k.a. families). At the end, all players got to choose a prize, in order of win-loss record. Donated prizes of go equipment were very popular. Other prizes included folding fans, sketchbooks, erasers shaped like dinosaurs, etc.

Thanks go to the families who brought the young players, and to the volunteers (Peter Kron, Sonny Cho, and Brian Allen) who helped it all run smoothly. Seattle Go Center’s next Youth event will be on a Sunday in March 2019 — exact date to be announced soon.- report by Mike Malveaux, photos by Brian Allen

Feifan Jia 5D took top honors at the 4th Lake Erie Go Tournament, held November 18 on the campus of Lake Erie College. Twenty players competed in the four round, handicap tournament, and player ranks ranged from 5d to 25k. The tournament was co-directed by Soren Jaffe and Catherine Swank.

The 2018 New York Youth Go Open was hosted on November 17 at the New York Institute of Go in Little Neck, NY. The Institute’s first youth AGA-rated face to face tournament with both trophies and cash prizes attracted 45 young players from the minimum age of 4 to 10th graders. Eleven-year-old Sophie Lin 2d won the top division with a four-game winning streak.

“We will continue working harder to hold more tournaments, and encourage and provide more opportunity to young players in New York!” said Institute president Stephanie Yin 1p. Every year, the New York Go Association and New York Institute of Go holds anywhere from 5-10 tournaments, with at least five of them youth competitions. Stephanie Yin has now taught nearly 400 youth players in New York, steadily growing the community of young go players. Click here for more on the Institute, including local tournaments, the Institute’s go club, and their YouTube channel.

“It could be that the way humans play go is changing, but in this game AlphaGo plays a lot of moves that human players are playing these days,” says Michael Redmond 9P in the latest installment of his game commentaries with E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock. “There’s a lot of fighting, as usual, but the territory is balanced and right up into the endgame there are groups whose life and death status is ambiguous,” Redmond says. “That affects the way the endgame is played, which makes it really interesting.”

I loved Charles French. That is a term I do not throw around much, but I loved Charles French,who passed away, age 90 on November 13. All of us, who can remember the time before a stroke severely limited his tournament, workshop and Congress attendance, will recall him fondly.

Charley found go as a chess player fairly early in his life, but never truly got to play until he found the AGA in his retirement. His enthusiasm for the game was perhaps the greatest I have ever witnessed, and he played with a glee that would rival any child.

He also played at a pace rivaled only by a glacier. His determination and concentration were amazing and he played with deliberate joy, outlasting if not outplaying you. Indeed, his motionless pose before the go board became a thing of legend, immortalized by me in my poem “Charley at the Ban.”

He was an inveterate tournament goer and congress attendee. Charley ran a go club from his home in Pennsylvania for many years and, with skills from his work as Treasurer of the Philadelphia Gas Works, he patiently sorted out some long neglected tax issues for the AGA back in the 1990s. He was a favorite student of Jujo Jiang, who unfailingly asked about him long after he stopped holding his Cleveland Workshops. He reached 2 kyu, a respectable achievement for a man who started playing in retirement. The AGA database shows 522 games and 108 tournaments, but many of his games were too early for the database to capture.

Charley was a wonderful man, a gentleman of the last century in every good way, and perhaps a few of the bad, that term implies. He was unfailingly courteous, polite, generous and kind. He loved family and children and above all a good joke and a laugh. Charley also appreciated women, a handsome man, he enjoyed attention, and yes, to be waited upon, but was always thankful and full of praise for the efforts of others.

Probably because he loved my wife, we spent many, many July weekends at his home on the Jersey Shore. These were truly some of the favorite times of my life, well fed and taken care of by his wife Addie, and the only price of admission endless games (and with Charley games were endless) in the sun on the deck. And “Uncle Charley’s” delight and joy in the arrival of our daughter is something I will always remember and appreciate.

by John Power, Japan correspondent for the E-Journal
Samsung Cup: Ke v. Ahn, China v. Korea: The best-of-three semifinals for the 23rd Samsung Cup were held at a Samsung Research Center in Taejeon City, Korea. Results were as follows:
(Game 1, Nov. 5) Ke Jie 9P (China) (W) beat Xie Erhao 9P (China) by resig.; Ahn Kukhyun 8P (Korea) (W) beat Tang Weixing 9P (China) by resig.
(Game 2, Nov. 6) Xie (W) beat Ke by 1.5 points; Ahn (B) beat Tang by resig.
(Game 3, Nov. 7) Ke (W) beat Xie by resig.
Ke and Ahn will meet in the best-of-three final on December, 3, 4 and 5. Ke will be vying for his sixth international title; Ahn will be making his debut in an international final.

Yamashita becomes Kisei challenger, sets record: The play-off to decide the challenger for the 43rd Kisei title was held at the Tokyo headquarters of the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo on November 9. It featured Yamashita Keigo 9P (left), winner of the S League, and Kono Rin 9P, who was second in the S League but who earned his seat in the play-off by defeating Onishi Ryuhei 3P in the final knockout tournament. Taking white, Yamashita beat Kono by resignation. Although the final is called a “best-of-three,” this was enough for Yamashita to win it, as the S League winner starts with a one-game advantage. Unusually for a big game, this also marked a landmark in Yamashita’s career: his 1,000thwin. He was the 24thplayer in Japan to reach this mark and, at 25 years seven months, the fastest. He broke the record set by Yuki Satoshi 9P of the Kansai Ki-in of 27 years one month.

The title match with Iyama Yuta will start on January 10. The Kisei will be a familiar arena for Yamashita, as he held the title for one term in 2003 (the 27thKisei) and for four years in a row from 2006 to 2009 (30thto 33rd). He also made three unsuccessful challenges in a row to Iyama Yuta: he lost the 38thto 40thtitle matches (2014 to 2016) 2-4, 3-4, and 0-4 in sequence. This may be a good time to challenge Iyama, as he seems a little vulnerable recently. First, though, Yamashita has to try to win the Tengen title match between the two that is now tied 1-1. A win here would give him a good springboard for the new year.

Fujisawa extends lead in Women’s Honinbo challenge: The second game of the 37th Women’s Honinbo title match was held at the headquarters of the Nihon Ki-in on November 9. Playing white, Fujisawa Rina (left) forced the title-holder Xie Yimin to resign after 212 moves. Fujisawa also won the first game, so she needs just one more win to take the title. The third game will be held on November 24.

New Faces in Meijin League: The final play-offs for the three vacant seats in the 44thMeijin League were all held on November 8 but at three different locations. At the Nihon Ki-in in Tokyo, Mutsuura Yuta 7P (W) beat Ko Iso 8P by resig. At the Nagoya branch, Suzuki Shinji 7P (W) beat Shida Tatsuya 7P by half a point. At the Kansai Ki-in, Son Makoto 6P (B) beat Fujii Shuya 7P (a member of the Kansai Ki-in) by resig. All three players will be making their league debuts. Son also earned a promotion to 7-dan, dated as of the following day. Matsuura’s win was his eighth and Son’s his seventh in ongoing streaks.

An undefeated Michael Chen 8D took top honors in the Gotham Go Tournament on November 10 in New York City. Tournament Director David Gleckle directed his first tournament with his assistants Ying and Sichen, and organizer Peter Armenia extended special “Thanks to my wife Gretchen for managing all the food and drinks.”

On the weekend after Thanksgiving, Saturday and Sunday, November 24 & 25, the San Diego Go Club will host the first annual California State Go Championship. The 5-round tournament will include an Open Section and Handicap Sections, and the best record in the Open by a California resident or student will earn the title of 2018 California State Champion, win cash and a trophy and have her or his name engraved on a permanent champion plaque. A total of $600 and trophies will be awarded for the best results in the various sections. AGA membership is required. Pre-registration by 11:59 p.m. Thanksgiving Day is required to play in Round 1. The site for the competition is the San Diego Chess Club in Balboa Park.

In conjunction with the Open Championship, the SDGC is hosting the 2018 13×13 State Go Championship. This competition will be 5-round, 30-minute games, intended for 20-Kyu to 30-Kyu players and beginners. The best boy and girl will be declared the 13×13 California State Champions and win appropriate trophies. The site is the same as the Open State Championship. Pre-registration by 11/23, 11:59 p.m. is required to play in Round 1 but walk-ins can play in later rounds. AGA membership is required but the California Go Association will have Chinese professional Hai Li rate the games for it. Players in this tournament can choose to play in the first three rounds of the AGA-rated 19×19 State championship on Saturday and take byes for rounds 4 & 5 on Sunday.

The Evanston Go Club’s November 10 fall tournament drew 42 players from five states; Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and, “Wait for it,” said TD Mark Rubenstein, “Hawaii!” The diverse field included players ranging in rank from 26k to 7d. Albert Yen 7d, a regular at the Evanston tournaments for many years, was able to play his first-ever even game against another 7 dan, Boya (Eric) Hu.

“With 13 dans, 15 single-digit kyus, 14 double-digit kyus, and ages ranging from 7 to 70, this tournament was one to be remembered!” said Rubenstein. “And exactly half the participants were first-time attendees; a new record!”

Daniel Lambert, who streams his games on Twitch, was recording his games at the tournament and has posted them online with commentary. And Xinming Simon Guo, the AGA’s 2015 Teacher of the Year, was there teaching some of his youngest students.

Prizes were supplied by Yellow Mountain Imports. “YMI has been donating prizes to us for many years; thanks Yellow Mountain!” said Rubenstein.

“You’ll notice all the DDK winners played six games,” Rubenstein added. “In fact, thirteen players played more than four games, which is the minimum to be eligible for a prize. This is one of the advantages of self-paired tournaments; players can play as many games as they like. You’ll also notice that Jim Benthem is holding three coins in his hand, and is the only one without a prize. That’s because there were only two prizes available for the Dan section, so the three players agreed to flip coins for them… and Jim lost the toss.”

As is the tradition, about a dozen players and family members went out for pizza after the tournament.

Nearly three dozen — 33, to be exact — players competed to take home Halloween pumpkins at the National Go Center on October 27. The top finishers in the open section were Frederick Bao 5D (pictured, front center) and Justin Teng 6D, each 3-1. Frederick was the overall winner on tiebreaks. All 4-0 and 3-1 finishers (pictured) happily took home pumpkins.

Eric Lui 1P teamed up with Nathan Epstein 2D to broadcast the top board in all 4 rounds on Twitch from the new broadcast room at the NGC. Click here for the commentary. “As always the Pumpkin Classic was a fun event.” reports TD Gurujeet Khalsa, “It was exciting to see Frederick break through with a tournament victory, and great to have Eric’s insightful commentary.”